PROMOTING THE GOOD IN BALTIMORE: Baltimore is similar to many other cities and regions in the country, with its share of challenges but also an abundance of opportunities and talent. Even with proper acknowledgement of our problems, though, Baltimore’s national reputation is far removed from the daily experience of most of the residents who live here. These negative impressions adversely affect more than our pride; they influence decisions about whether to move to or invest in our City. Jurisdictions like Austin, Texas -- a city that already has a positive image -- spend millions more on reputational marketing. What role will marketing and promoting the good in Baltimore play in your administration? Will you increase investment in promotion and improving our reputation and, if so, by how much?

Cindy Walsh for Mayor of Baltimore intends to step away from the current Master Plan with Baltimore Development Corporation and move to one that has Baltimore City Hall tied by all city agencies to each community in Baltimore. I will be removing all global corporations to all agencies and I will seek to end the designation of International Economic Zone and tax-free downtown status. That said, I do not have plans to affect much of the development done downtown other than interject small business economies throughout a heavily national chain development and limit corporate campus grabs of real estate. My platform rebuilds all Baltimore communities with small business economies and sending all the revenue needed to this will be my primary objective. This stability is necessary for our downtown communities and businesses and it will not preclude continued growth downtown. With this objective I see marketing and advertising Baltimore a lower priority than other mayors in the past. We are looking for a healthy, stable, local small business economy in Baltimore free from Wall Street and global corporations----meaning we must develop this local economy before attaching too much economic growth to corporations.

STREETS/PEDESTRIANS: Successful mayors recognize that seemingly small municipal services can matter the most to citizens. In an older city with well-known infrastructure problems, what is your plan to improve poor streets and sidewalks? How will you better integrate the needs of pedestrians and bicyclists into roadway improvements?

As the most environmental and public transportation candidate my vision for Baltimore is building a city-wide public transit system based on Seattle----having been used as a city model for decades. The key is versatility, dependability, and easy to use. Baltimore has downtown as a hub destination for all of those services for surrounding communities as well as movement of citizens living in this downtown space. I see the following venues of public transportation networking together:

Water taxi/taxi/bus/light rail/kayaking/pedestrian/biking/skateboarding

The backbone of a city public transit is its MTA bus system and in Baltimore it has been left defunded and dismantled of oversight and accountability. I will see that funding reaches the city due from Maryland and Federal agencies and then see it reaches each transit category for which it is designated. I know time studies and transit scheduling and connections and this must be done annually to adjust for growth and detours especially in areas under heavy construction. Scheduling must be ready for contingency and emergencies to allow our riders to feel they will not be last in these considerations. I will have wait times to 30 minutes and would like to see downtown as a free-ride zone on all MTA buses. No need to wait for a Circulator bus----just jump on. Transfer fare rates lower than all day gives opportunity for more affordable fares. Downtown has a problem with parking decks and rush hour release of employees that create gridlock on major arteries that need to be re-engineered for this specific time.I envision relieving car volume from Fells Point/Federal Hill/Canton with expanded public water-taxi routes geared for rush hour workers coming downtown. A few fleet taxis elongated like buses to hit these water-taxi stations frequently during rush hour will allow tourists to continue to move in sight-seeing but allow citizens to feel a reliable public transit home. Bike kiosks at those water taxi sites and throughout city center will be easily connected to Zip Car zoning perhaps to allow a transfer from one to another public transit need. I intend to have bike kiosks at all public schools and community centers for families to access coming into downtown. Bike paths are well on their way and I will continue to include them in all road upgrades and fund education to protect our biking, walking, and skating citizens.I really want our Baltimore taxi system under public control so will move from Veola Transportation Trans Dev ties to reintegrating these public transit systems into a total one that includes our disability, water taxi, Circulator vehicles. Taxi service needs to extend beyond city center as our communities are rebuilt people need to know they have this option as needed. Public control will take away need to profit----and simply be there as a service. I like Circulator/trolley vs other styles of buses but do not see natural gas as GREEN----fracking is the worst of environmental offenders. Our taxi drivers need to be public sector employees getting a living wage with folks not seeing such high taxi fares. MTA does a Hampden Shuttle that needs to happen in all communities. Bus stops need schedules and benches and drivers need to feel the mission is to meet that schedule. Now it is the rider who has the burden of finding out if a bus is on time or when it comes using texting to which not everyone has access.All sidewalk upgrades will be done with green pathways for pedestrians in mind and a skateboard path when possible. Having duel paths with a center line is done in other cities and would make walking more desirable. Public school buses to get our school children off of MTA as this kills any planning for our rush-hour workers downtown. Children should not have to ride the city bus unless necessary.

LEXINGTON MARKET: Lexington Market is located in the most transit-connected part of the City and is already an important resource for residents who live in neighborhoods with poor access to groceries. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has proposed a bold plan to renovate the Market to serve the current consumers in a better way, while also drawing in more patrons.Will you support the plans to improve the Market so that it may better serve people from across our City and the tens of thousands of people who live and work in the neighborhood that surrounds the Market?

I absolutely love Lexington Market and I will expand such markets in each community as we rebuild. I have not liked Rawlings-Blake development so I will say this----my vision of who will be involved in doing the development----who the tenets will be-----may be different but I assure you the downtown citizens accessing this venue will have a voice on what it looks like. Pike Place Market in Seattle does a good job in fresh foods and food products mixed with crafts people and lots of cultural venues and that is what I would encourage for Lexington Market. Developing this area must move away from the same search for a large investment firm coming in to install the same national chains -----this area is ideal for small business development with a multi-cultural feel to it. Tourist are far more attracted to these small venues than these national chains taking all development growth.

ROYAL FARMS ARENA: Despite an aging building and the need for significant upgrades, the Royal Farms Arena continues to outperform all other venues of its size nationally, and is ranked among the top-grossing venues of its size in the world. The current management and transit-oriented location are keys to this success, but physical improvements are much needed. Do you support keeping the Arena in its current location? How would you prioritize and identify funds for the necessary improvements?I feel Baltimore needs more small sporting/entertainment venues like the Arena but would like to promote local over national draws. We must give our local communities and schools opportunity to shine in these larger central sporting/entertainment venues and I will look into ending the quasi-status connected to the Arena. I like Royal Farms chicken ----it is one of the few fast foods I will occasionally indulge so we will look for funding venues for development. Again, I do intend to make surrounding community the priority but there is always funding directed at only these kinds of venues and I will fight for that.

INCENTIVES: Do you support the use of grants and tax incentives to attract employers and retailers to the City, including Downtown? Do you believe that Tax Increment Financing can be used in older neighborhoods to fund public infrastructure work, such as in Charles Center and the Bromo Tower Arts District, where funding is needed for Lexington Market, the Arena, the courthouses, the Convention Center, parks and plazas, and other pubic purposes?

You may not like me on this but I do not feel Baltimore needs tax incentive to grow downtown. We have a city full of citizens willing to open small businesses and pay taxes much needed by city coffers and that is where I will be going. I will re-assess existing corporate tax breaks and subsidy and Enterprise Zone contracts will have oversight and accountability in meeting terms of agreement. Baltimore has been starved of tax revenue by these very bad development tools. I say this at every forum. If you are a mayor who is really going to rebuild oversight and accountability and make sure all revenue to and from city coffers is accounted for-----you will add $1-2 billion in revenue to our annual budget and that will be what is used for the projects listed above. The fraud and corruption must end and that comes with taking all corporate connections with our city agencies and bringing them back under city purview. We do that and we have all the revenue needed for all community plans.

CITY PROPERTY INVENTORY: The City owns a significant number of properties in Downtown Baltimore, including several damaged or long-vacant properties in the Howard Street corridor. Would you consider selling these properties for minimal price if it meant they would reactivate with arts, residences, or retail uses?

My concern with downtown development right now is lack of public green space. We are being told that corporate campus landscaping will be that green space but that is not the answer. I would like Inner Harbor made into a natural park and trail design with that public park status tied to it and that will be my consideration in development of Howard Street corridor. This would be a great avenue to install green central median landscaping and opening up some of that retail store needing demolition should include open green space. I support co-op housing for artists and worker trades and would want that to be included.

CIRCULATOR: Downtown Partnership proposed the Charm City Circulator and pitched it to the City as a way to move people through Baltimore’s most dense Downtown neighborhoods, reduce congestion, and better connect existing transit modes. The service, run by the City, has been incredibly successful, serving a very diverse population. According to a recent survey, 50% of the riders identified themselves as minorities and 50% reported less than $45,000 in annual income. The Circulator was initially funded by a 5% tax on parking garages, and 83% of this tax is generated from garages located along the current Circulator routes. This tax yields $6 million in funds annually, which is sufficient to support a small, tightly-knit system. The Circulator was never structured or funded to be a city-wide replacement for the MTA. If you support expansion of the system, how would you pay for such expansion without reducing current service levels? Would you find other revenue sources beyond the parking tax, particularly if the expansion extends service to neighborhoods that don’t generate parking taxes? Do you support the creation of an Advisory Board to oversee operations and spending?As said above----I like Circulator and its routes but not the VEOLA connection to it---not the tie to our parking authority----and not the fact that only city center has such a venue. I spoke of needing MTA shuttles in all communities and extending Circulator in that capacity would be fine. SW Partnership wants Circulator to extend to UMBC ----so we will need to see what all communities think. I feel this should be paid for by existing MTA Baltimore transit allotments and if we are not currently receiving enough to do that we need to assess if Baltimore is receiving all it should from Maryland and make sure we are receiving all Federal funding connected to public transit. Baltimore citizens do not need to pay more taxes----we need to bring our Parking Authority back to city agency and end that quasi status and not make the public struggle with parking rates. I do not like the format of committees and commissions we have in Baltimore and Maryland now. So, I would have to take a look at what people’s idea of an Advisory Board would be. I intend to build all city agencies to each community and that would include public transit so there would be public voice from that venue.

WATER COMMUTER OPTIONS: Downtown’s waterfront neighborhoods contain significant numbers of jobs and residents, but commuting across the harbor is difficult. Would you support expanding the use of water taxis for commuters, particularly the creation of service to3Harborplace and the Science Center, which would connect employees and residents to the core of Downtown?

Yes, I answered that above. I love water taxi and want citizens riding it more and not have it primarily as a tourist transit.

OUTREACH: Downtown Baltimore has the greatest density and number of outreach services in the City, both public and private. What is your plan to improve services to the homeless, especially the chronically homeless? Do you support the Housing First model?

I will enforce Federal equal protection laws and that includes housing and education. This means bringing those funds still needing to come to Baltimore, identifying those funds from Enterprise Zones and Baltimore HUD that should have resulted in actual affordable housing downtown. I will move Baltimore Housing Authority back into our Baltimore agency where we can assure these housing needs are secured and citizens see public housing and low-income housing as part of every mixed-income formula in each community and downtown. The past allotment of small percentages given in development was never legal and we need to revisit this. As well, if Baltimore is truly to become a major city again we must assure a presence for middle-low income citizens and that will occur by rent control and land grant multi-family building for one.I will build out into all communities our city homeless shelters-----people will be sheltered in their communities as needed and that includes in downtown. Right now the system is completely outsourced with no oversight and accountability----lots of people doing good but lots of revenue being lost to misappropriation and corruption in this area. I will bring a public core to this system to bring non-profits together and make sure a safety net is in place. All shelters will be staffed to protect citizens.

INCLUSIONARY HOUSING: Hundreds of income-restricted units are coming on line in Downtown over the next few years, continuing to draw residents with lower incomes into our neighborhoods. These units are being developed as parts of projects that are intended and funded as stand-alone buildings. They are not being produced as a result of the current inclusionary housing law, which requires market rate projects to set aside a percentage of income-restricted units if paid for by the City. Our experience shows that it is much more effective to create a neighborhood with income-restricted buildings together with market rate buildings, rather than to try to force such units into market rate projects. Where do you stand on promoting income diversity in neighborhoods, and how would you accomplish your vision?I will be the voice leading this push for inclusion as I said earlier. Baltimore has so many Federal and state resources coming for affordable and public housing that simply need a mayor wanting to get that funding there. Baltimore uses the term market rate affordable housing almost always and that is because this will allow what was affordable to rise as the community property values rise meaning affordable housing will become $300, 000 when property values are $1million. We understand some of this may need to occur but that is where rent control and land trusts can assure a set amount of housing that is not gentrified away.

EXPUNGEMENT: Downtown Partnership provides jobs for people who were formerly incarcerated. We see first-hand how a criminal record adversely affects someone’s ability to find stable work and housing. Do you support systemic changes that would allow people convicted of low-level offenses to have their records expunged?

Cindy Walsh is the only candidate with a platform of rebuilding all communities in Baltimore as they are for the citizens now in these communities. I will be bringing small business construction and fresh food economies as the platform for building strength and stability to a community. This means with no outsourcing each community will see demolition, recycling of debris for rehabbing of houses for those most housing insecure, hauling away of huge amounts of concrete and bad housing to open real estate that will become a grand public green space. We are downsizing each community as needed, but retaining the real estate as green space to allow future growth. This will be several acres of central space with a great public greenhouse, a barn for small animal husbandry, trees and especially orchard trees with each community having a unique fruit to offer the city. The citizens will do the work-----own the small businesses needed to do these jobs------and those engaged in all development projects will be eligible for ownership of those rehabbed houses. This provides a platform for the poorest in a community for housing stability, food stability, and small business ownership. The grand public green space will be attached to a public school and public health clinic in each community and will attract plenty of middle-income families to create that mixed-income housing needed in most underserved communities. I want the public housing being dismantled from city center---the high-rises which did need to be re-purposed----to move to each community connected to the mixed-income housing formula. There would be a public shelter in each community as well making sure housing is assured for any community need. I will be growing a diverse community economy by funding small businesses in cultural arts, music, media, emerging technology-----each community will have a recreational venue that citizens from one community will want to frequent and vice-versa. All of this will act to fuel new businesses in different industries. As well, I see rebuilding our manufacturing base as small business manufacturing and not global corporate factories. This means local citizens may want to join in worker-co-op manufacturing businesses-----producing things needed by citizens in their communities and the City of Baltimore and surrounding areas.

All of this will create the conditions for our ex-offenders to integrate successfully with their community of choice. There will be support and tracking for these citizens to help facilitate their success. As well, I will be building a Baltimore Public Justice system that has been missing and with that comes access for all to civil and criminal justice. This would have a department where ex-offenders feeling they have been forced to plead to crimes they did not commit or feel they were wrongfully charged and convicted can seek redress. If a case is there we would move for expungement. Many Baltimore citizens will see favorable results in clearing their criminal record.

POLICING: Downtown neighborhoods are the most densely packed residential neighborhoods and business districts in the region. Every day, tens of thousands of people are out on the street, including thousands of school children and commuters who make transit connections. With so much activity, what is your position on extending Police foot patrol throughout Downtown?I will be reforming Baltimore City Police Department mission from one connected to militarized policing and training to one of serving and protecting the public. With that will come more categories of community relations police----and that will include foot patrols. I see police tied to community activities and organizations as citizens and not only as police. Moving away from aggressive tactics like pepper spray, tasing, and to policy of discharging fire arms as a last resort. Downtown areas must have foot patrols, bike patrols-----

BROADBAND: Reliable, affordable high speed Internet access is essential for business and economic empowerment, but capacity and consumer choice within Baltimore City are limited. How will you improve broadband access across Baltimore?

Many people do not know the trajectory on accessing broad band and that is the gorilla in the room-----global medical health care/global education/global data/NSA of which Baltimore is ground zero. Right now all access to broad band is moving towards only that venue meaning individual citizens and small businesses will be pushed off completely, be pushed to pay higher and higher rates to retain ordinary access----right now talks of city-wide Wi-Fi is tied to pushing everyone to this poorer quality access over global corporations.I will make securing all Baltimore vital infrastructure my primary focus and this includes assuring our Baltimore telecommunications conduit is reserved for individuals and small business and I will subsidize small telecommunications co-op businesses that will connect to our public conduit offering that high-speed internet and competition with what is a telecommunication monopoly. This same global corporate tie exists on our public water and waste and I will remove that as we rebuild our public water and sewage pipeline making sure it is environmental and remains in public hands providing affordable rates.

GATEWAYS: Millions of people enter Baltimore each year through gateways that are less than inviting. Some gateways require long-term vision – such as the miles of Amtrak rail that run through some of the city’s most neglected neighborhoods. Others are former industrial areas or traffic corridors that have not benefitted from even basic modern streetscaping. How will you improve these gateways and send a message that Baltimore cares about how it looks and functions?

First, Maryland and Baltimore does not provide oversight and accountability over private rail corporations having the requirement to maintain tracks both of trash and equipment----as well as we move into upgrading the tunnels under Baltimore. The public domain that usually follows railways are great opportunities for green walking/skating/biking paths. The tunnel that runs through my neighborhood has brush and is never maintained when it is easily an area for visual landscaping. I will be bringing our public works and services into all communities and with that public employees tied to maintaining parks, school and playgrounds, and even though these railways are privately owned we could extend these public employees to maintaining rail lines as they travel through communities. My entire platform is rebuilding all communities with large green space and that will include your concerns listed here.

MINOR PRIVILEGE: We live in a digital world, but, because of antiquated zoning and minor privilege rules, it is very difficult to add video screens or other digital displays on the facades of4buildings or in public spaces. Do you support changes that will make it easier to install these types of technologies?

Absolutely-----that is to me what emerging technology is----Baltimore needs lots of these types of technologies. I include building cultural venue businesses into each community economy and this is exactly how I would see it used. We should have public outdoor theaters throughout Baltimore where these technologies could be combined with local movie/theater video.

ZONING: Modernizing zoning codes is critically important to creating dynamic, mixed-use districts. Do you support Transform Baltimore?

I am better than Transform Baltimore as regards public schools. I do not like the current Great Schools and how our school rebuilding and funding policies are and will be restructuring how we are funding and seeing that every community has a public school and that it meets equal opportunity and access. Public schools are being used as gentrification tools and I will not allow that. I am at odds with BEC-----so we may differ in this regard.

Thank you for allowing me to answer these questions.Cindy Walsh for Mayor of Baltimore.

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